LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE
SECOND SEMESTER – APRIL 2004
EL 2800/LE 822 AMERICAN LITERATURE
Date
: 02.04.04
Max
Duration :1 – 4 pm
: 100 marks
Hours : 3 hrs
SECTION A
I.
Answer the following questions in about 50 words
(10x2 = 20 marks)
1.
He pierced the emblematic or spiritual character of the visible, audible, tangible word
a. Who is the man referred to in this passage?
a. Why does Emerson admire him?
2.
The time is infected with Hamlet’s unhappiness
Sicklied o’er with Hamlet’s unhappiness.
a. What is Hamlet’s unhappiness?
b. How does Emerson connect it with the problem of his society?
3.
When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in otherman’s transcripts of their
reading.
a. Explain the Context
b. Is there any contradiction in the idea presented here by the author? Explain?
4.
Don’t use such an expression as “Dim lands of peace”, It “Dulls the Image”
What is Pound’s criticism about the expression used here? Explain.
5.
Be influenced by as many great artists as you can
What difference do you find, regarding the idea of influence between Pound and Emerson?
6.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference
a. What is the choice implied in these lines?
b. Explain the Universal significance of these lines?
7.
The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality
 Explain the link between death and immortality in these lines
8.
Shine! Shine! Shine!
Pour down your warmth, great Sun!
While we bask, we two together
 Explain the Universality in these lines
9.
I’se Emperor yit, ain’t I?
And de Emperor Jones leaves de way he comes and dat black trash don’t dare stop him-not yit, least
ways.
 Explain the agony of Emperor Jones and his arrogance.
10.
Astrological sign. I bet you were born under Aries …. They dote in noise
 What were the feelings of Blanche expressed in these lines
-2-
SECTION B
PART – A
II. Answer any four of the following in about 200 words each, choosing two from each part:
(4x10 = 40 marks)
11.
Discuss with appropriate examples the elements of horror and mystery found in Poe’s “The Tell-Tale
Heart”
12.
How does Hawthorne propound his puritanical principles in his short story “ The Birth mark”?
13.
“Thoreau’s main task in Civil Disobedience is to assert the freedom of the American citizen”. Do you
think Thoreau succeeds in his effort? Justify your answer.
14.
The aim of reality seems to me to be the Supreme virtue of a novel- The merit on which all its other
merits helplessly and submissively depend”- Do you think Henry James justifies this statement quite
consistently in his essay The Art of Fiction? Discuss
PART - B
15.
Eugene O’Neill is an expressionist. Illustrate the same from his plays especially with regard to his
symbolism and dramatic techniques
16.
Anne Bradstreet is a poetess of the ordinary. Explain this statement with illustrations from her poems.
17.
‘Chicago’ is a typical American poem. Comment on this criticism of the poem.
18.
“Emily Dickinson is a poetess of interiority and deeper questions of life and death in Because I could
not Stop for Death and The Soul selects her own society”. Discuss
Section C
III. Answer the following in about 500 words each
19.
(2x20=40 marks)
20.
What according to Emerson are the three influences that play a vital role in the making of a scholar?
Discuss
Or
Consider Steinberk’s “ Of Mice and Men” as a social novel
21.
Compare and Contrast The Glass Menagerrie and Mourning Becomes Electra
22.
Sketch the Characteristics of American Poetry from the prescribed poems of Robert Frost, Whitman
and Carle Sandburg
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